The Melbourne tramway: strike' lasted a fortnight, and then collapse ed, The leaders told the men that they had won, because the Arbi tion Jadge had ordered them to back to work, and had ordered the' Board which governs the tramway "service to say without delay what Dunishment it proposed to. inflict pon the man whose flat obedience was the cause of all the trouble, The Board has since said [that it) will keep him out until Toly 1, and now the men say that the treatment i harsh, Wat they not say it very loudly. The fact His that the men were stampeded into striking in the belief that their serices could not be dispensed with, whereas the general public was Wellsserved by" motor buses, and certain that he will soon be defeat-el in the Assembly. and wil than sorts of motor vehicles, the congestion of the traffic in the streets have to go to the country with a somewhat slim chance of success, Was redueed, and time in travelling {icas "saved." The "hotheads who Tt cannot be said that Me. Bruce, the Commonwealth Prime Minister, is lacking in patience, He refuses to be hustled, makes no promises and is seeking for a programme which will appeal to both sections of his followers, I have on previous occasions mentioned his assertion of adherence to the protectionist policy, concerning which Labour makes capital in the Eastern States on the grounds that ministerialists are inclined to wobble, and in the western States on the ground that protection places undue burdens on the primary industries.
The protectionist declarations of Mr. Bruce are therefore calculated to rob the Labour party of som of its thunder, and at the same time make things easier for the Nationalists, Then Mr. Bruce has announced the policy of using the excess tariff revenues as a means of compensate ing the primary producers by grant {ing bounties on production and subsidies on stoame in order to secure markets for the surplus products.
Mr. Bruce Defence Policy Following upon this, the Prime Minister, without going' into details, which we may expect very shortly, has declared for a definite and com. prehensive defence policy. That will gratify the Nationalists and at the same time afford the Country party members a chance to reverse the stupid opposition to. military and naval expenditure which they Gisplayed in 1922, chiefly for the purpose of harrying Mr. W. Hughes, There is yot, another item of policy, which will certainly create a serious division between Labour and the Country party. The latter pledged itself at the last elections to push on with a vigorous scheme of immigration, but in actual fact the results of 1023 appear to be little better if not worse than those of 1922, Again the purpose of the Country party was to discredit the Hughes Ministry, but it not unnaturally would be lad to show that it was accomplishing something of what it said should be done.
Senator R. V. Wilson, whom Mr. Bruce left behind him in England to look after Australian interests at the Wembley exhibition, wi sharily return to Australia, and is announced that he hat made arrangements with the British government for a new and elaborate Scheme of immigration. It is said that the amount involved will be something like £20,000,000, on the basis of a 16-year loan, This brought above this strike have gons 8 long way to give back to private enterprise the public utility which hot s0 long ago was municipalized, Another industrial trouble pro mises to have much the same sor: of result. Men have been called off the ships of a certain line, and have Iheon idle for several weeks. The ships remain tied up. The cause of the trouble is that one of the crew ist-a steamer of the line bruised his thumb, and the union demanded thumb into court and proceeded to ials refused to take the but the
hang up ship after ship belonging to the company. The Intest news is that the men who have thus been thrown out of work are beginning ask themselves what it is all ubout, und are moving the Disputes Committee of the Sydney Trades Council to bring the impasse to end. Meanwhile several alleged conspiracy, an une pleasant prospect, if they cannot square the jury, of finding themselves in gaol, 1928 the number of industrial disputes: throughout Australia was easily the lowest since 1919 and the number of workers—directly: and eetly—involved comparatively innificant. These last two strikes hardly encourage further inter-ions of industry, so that we expect a relatively peaceful For the first quarter of th sent year out of 388,960 members of 428 unions only 7.6 per cent. were reported ax unemployed, but this did not inetude persons on "strike or locked out, Victor Government Defeated The end of the Victorian government and the final act of revenge against the Nationalists for daring flout the Country party has come with dramatic suddenness, and the government of Sir Alexander Pea-evoke has just been defeated in con nexion with a Redistribution of ts Bill upon which the Nation-and Countey party were prior to Lawson's break with the latter. On the second reading division a number of Country members crossed the fi i ed the Labour Opposit result that the Bill was defeated by The question now is, whut action will the Governor take? {Will he give Sir Alexander a dissolution, or will he send for the Labour leader. "Naturally Prender- ba: is ust, the leader of the Opposition, not, as at present, solely for the purpose of bringing new settlers to this country, but also for the importation of artisans, labourers, and others whose entry is fiercely opposed by the Labour party on the grounds that it tends to swamp the Labour market. The programme 0 far may thus be summarised: 1-—Maintenanee of protection; Shipping subsidies and new {contends that the latter would be the correct procedure. His theory is that no defeated government has the right to control elections—a {novel and suggestive contention, It} is generally assumed that Lord {Stradbroke will grant a dissolution, and thus within a few months yet third State election will be held i the anti-Labour forces will [fight each other, and allow Labour, quite possibly, to come back strong
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.